Timelapse shows eight-year build of Louvre Abu Dhabi in just three minutes

A 4K time-lapse video from EarthCam shows the eight-year construction of the new Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi in just three minutes.

The intricate construction process is condensed down from 70,000 hours of archived footage, showing the site going from an empty stretch of island to a 23-gallery museum covered by a 180-metre wide geometric dome.

Image: EarthCam

"The Louvre Abu Dhabi is an epic architectural achievement and we are honoured to have been the time-lapse technology provider for this iconic project," says Brian Cury, CEO and founder of EarthCam.

The finished dome is made of 8,000 overlapping metal stars arranged in a geometric pattern, and the video shows how light streams through at different angles depending on the location of the sun, creating a dappled effect.

Dappled light. Image: EarthCam

Towards the end of construction, the pools surrounding and under the dome are flooded with water, and the structure appears to be surrounded by the sea.

Over one million hi-res images were taken over the eight-year project. Most were at a resolution of 4K but it’s reported that some of the panoramas were as large as a billion pixels.

Image: EarthCam

The gallery forms a nucleus for the Saadiyat Cultural District, which will soon include the Foster + Partner-designed Zayed National Museum and a new Guggenheim designed by Frank Gehry, although work on that is yet to begin.